Siilijoki

[Swordmaster]

Great work Noah! It would be a trivial job to make a complete "snow" set of rail textures, so I think this has great potential.

Answer is yes. 

Glad to see Hugo again. 


Cheers
Willy

[Flatron]

I don't know what I like more, the winter in your pictures or the one outside my window... That STR looks just so real, reminds of when the train I used to ride to school got stuck in the snow and we got a week off *pleasant memories*
I just love having a long breakfast when the sun starts peeking through my neighbours' apple trees giving the snow that glittery effect that makes me want to sing "walking in a winterwonderland" or "morning has broken" I'm a definitely a winter guy and cannot wait till I can go skiing not only in austria, but also at home (still only 15cm of snow )
or better: at that mountain in the back:

(I can remove the pic if it bothers you)  please don't remove it

[noahclem]

I have a new project that's really exciting to me--and I hope to you too   Theresa (rambuckel) has taken a fantastic older bat of hers and given it a lovely snowy roof just in time for winter. I think the results are fantastic. I turned it into a building-as-prop on a 1x1 lot with transparent base textures and plopped it into one of the two testing grounds I showed in the previous update. The result was what I consider one of the best pictures I've ever taken--note that the file name is "bestever"


click to enlarge



I quickly shared the picture with Willy, who happened to be on Skype at the time, and while he was very enthusiastic he reminded me that I've posted a lot of pictures over the years and wouldn't say it was my "best ever". Following that line of discussion we ended up with the following idea:

What is your all-time favorite picture from Siilijoki?

Just getting a bit of feedback on that would have been enough to make me very happy. But why not make it more interesting? If you're kind enough to submit a picture from Siilijoki's history as your favorite than you'll be awarded naming rights to an un-named geographic feature of your choice. After a period of submissions, let's call it a week, a poll will be set up for people to vote on their favorites. If the picture you selected wins the vote you'll win a special prize, to be determined. For the sake of fairness we can decide on the prize before voting begins and all options are on the table, up to the possibility limited playing access (SJ is in the cloud after all). I sincerely look forward to hearing back from you


Moving on, there's more to see of Theresa's lovely cabin



click to enlarge the following pictures










note that two are the same as the "best ever" but taken during different parts of the sunrise--and the reindeer have shuffled around a little, as is their wont

That first picture is awesome, I love it.
I like the rail texture, perfect for snowy weather. And color of the snow look great too.
The way you capture pictures has always intrigued me. I like how you take the time to show all sorts of times of day.
Great work as always.

Robin

Thanks Robin! The rail texture is taken straight from Willy's with some lightening and removal of the ballast so I can't take much credit. I am happy with the snow too but again borrowing a bit from others    Taking pictures at different times has always interested me and I think can be a really neat way to present things. It's easy to forget how nice of colors the game makes for sunrise and sunset because they happen so fast and it's usually easier to just set the lighting to day or night anyway. Much appreciated

The terrain looks fantastic and the twilight picture is outstanding, it has a nice gloomy feel to it!   

Thanks Erik! I really like twilight pictures; pity they're so tricky to catch (or that one has to be quick at least). Twilight does help catch the gloomy feel of our days this time of year though.

Amazing stuff you're showing Noah!the terrain looks so realistic!and loved the snowy rail tracks
Always nice to see your skills!
Cheers
Guglielmo

Thank you very much! Glad you liked the snowy textures

Awesome work on both the terrain texture and the STR. Love the snowy STR one.

Too bad there isn't any overhead lines and pillars for this line, judging that the engine has two pantograph. Just picking on the small details.

Thanks Arthur! Glad you liked the new snowy textures. That pantograph gave me the same thought actually. I guess the catenaries should be snowy though I'm not sure. And since the STR here is RRW-based I don't think a mod for them exists yet

Gorgeous photos, Noah. Snow has been pretty rare here for the last several years - so have freezing temps - but I can look at your lovely winter scenery and dream. And I'd like a ticket for the night train, please.

Thanks Joan! There are times when the weather could be nice to trade but the beauty of a good winter can't be denied. I'll send a ticket your way

Wow, great winter landscapes!   Must have been a bit of work to get everything looking like that.

Thanks a lot and welcome to Siilijoki! It was some work but nothing compared to the terrain mods you've done--just adjusting textures and minor changes to the texture table.

@Jmouse, I'll come on that journey as well! I'll bring some selfmade egg-liqueur to keep us warm! 

@Noah: The landscapes you created look fantastic! They create that atmosphere every child (me included) is dreaming of for christmas. Theses landscapes are the place where I suppose Santas house to be hidden. Actually I couldn't discover it between the trees but it must be there somwhere!

Sounds delicious! Look forward to seeing you both and perhaps Santa will be making an appearance before too long   Thanks!

Great work Noah! It would be a trivial job to make a complete "snow" set of rail textures, so I think this has great potential.

Answer is yes. 

Glad to see Hugo again. 


Cheers
Willy

Trivial?   Well, a set would be really nice. Of course if there's rails then there ought to be streets and ideally roads. Even RHW could use snowy shoulders. And Arctic squirrels--awesome

Hugo sends his greetings and says he's happy to hear from you again

I don't know what I like more, the winter in your pictures or the one outside my window... That STR looks just so real, reminds of when the train I used to ride to school got stuck in the snow and we got a week off *pleasant memories*
I just love having a long breakfast when the sun starts peeking through my neighbours' apple trees giving the snow that glittery effect that makes me want to sing "walking in a winterwonderland" or "morning has broken" I'm a definitely a winter guy and cannot wait till I can go skiing not only in austria, but also at home (still only 15cm of snow )
or better: at that mountain in the back:

Beautiful picture! You'll have to post another once the mountain gets a little snowier. While my winter stuff is primarily inspired by what I see around me I can always use more inspiration. I'm also a winter guy these days but it can get a little long here. Thanks for the nice comment 

[Gugu3]

Great shots Noah!I'll have to get back to Siilijoki and find out the best picture then

[Jmouse]

Do you want us to post our favorite Siilijoki photo here or send it to you via PM?

[Swordmaster]

Awesome work on this picture! I have to agree it may be the best of your snow scenes to date. However, there's more to life than snow

This is still my favorite:




Cheers
Willy

[noahclem]

Thanks everybody!!

@ Joan:  you can just post pictures here

[Jmouse]

I remember the first time I ever saw this photo -- I was literally stunned by the haunting beauty of the scene. So when you mentioned a favorite Siilijoki  photo, I knew exactly which one I wanted to submit. It was just a matter of spending a few minutes looking for it. Now would you care to see the 250 photos tied for second place?

[vinlabsc3k]

Awesome work on this picture! I have to agree it may be the best of your snow scenes to date. However, there's more to life than snow

This is still my favorite:




Cheers
Willy

Me too!!
I love the mix between modern and classic and the park.

And great snow pictures!!

[vortext]

What is your all-time favorite picture from Siilijoki?

What's this, mission impossible?! 

Nah, I know which picture I like the best, if only I could find it again. . hold on. . . Yep, here it is.



imho it has everything which makes this MD great: intricate transit network, excellent BAT selection, good mmps usage and subtle Photoshopping (or GIMPing in this case  ).   

double edit: almost forgot to mention the latest snow pictures are very nice as well!! 

[benedict]

The moon above the trees that Joan mentioned is my all time favorite.

This one is a close second. Such patience to add snow to all the onion domes.

Greetings from Santa's workshop

And this one's in 3rd place for me:

33.10 -- The old city is the night life core of the area too

[Gugu3]

Hi Noah,
was just wondering how's the new Siilijoki getting shape
Cheers
Guglielmo

[APSMS]

Not to beat a (dead?) horse, but the picture Joan posted makes me wonder whether you really took a screen shot, or just doctored a photo taken during a camping trip in Finland/Scandinavia and made it look like you made it in SC4. That's have to get my vote.

Wish I had time to go through the archives. There's a lot of great stuff there. Hopefully RL is going alright; patiently awaiting an update (here or NORO), but only whenever you have time.

-Absalom

[noahclem]

Thanks a ton for the interest guys!

With regard to the competition I hadn't finished as a couple people had expressed interest in choosing a picture and hadn't responded yet.

I still haven't got back into building things regularly but have built a little. After Guglielmo and Absalom posted I decided to take a picture to show the little I have built since the last obliteration of the city.

click


Obviously everything is in a very rough draft phase (I didn't build or bulldoze anything taking the pictures and I can see a bit of road I built simply to test RHW-over-rail capability that won't be a part of any future transportation layout). The rail station will be the primary one in the region and the layout of the rails around it is pretty close to what I figure I'll end up with besides maybe getting rid of the tunnels. I'm trying to get that highway to parallel it but haven't decided yet how best to do it. I plan other major passenger rail stations, one at the airport, one on the fringe of the metropolitan area, and perhaps another smaller one on the other side of the city center. Plans for the area's highway layout are in their pretty early stages but you can get at least a little idea of it from the pic. In any case the center will be designed "European style" in the sense that there won't be big highways creating big divisions in neighborhoods or making travel unpleasant for pedestrians. Tunnels are a possibility or maybe nothing at all for highways. Anyway, taking the screen shots and explaining the work has suddenly piqued my interest in the area 

[MTT9]

I like were you've placed that train station. I look foward to see what happens

[vinlabsc3k]

Good pre-developement phase screenshot Noah!
I build my cities in this manner too!!

[noahclem]

Evening project










Came across these old PEG models today and figured they could work well adapted to game water as well. I've been playing quite a bit lately and have a big update on the way   Thanks for all your feedback!

[art128]

Nice! That river has a Chicago feel to it.

[kbieniu7]

Nice usage of tenements. It's the first time, I see a bascule bridge in simcity

[vortext]

Good to see something from you again Noah! The bridge fits nicely indeed. Looking forward to that big update!